Chapter 3 - Author's Notes

So the writing style is a little different, somewhat lighter than the first two chapters. That’s because I wrote it in the light of day and not at 3 AM when I was supposed to be sleeping. Anyway, I have officially moved this fic out of “Complete” status and now acknowledge that this is in fact a Work In Progress. After this chapter I couldn’t leave it here for my own sake. Once again, I owe a thanks to those who put this up on their Community. I received another deluge of Alert emails in the last week that was very touching. Anyway, here’s a hope that you’re not disappointed.

Funny thing, I almost just left this chapter where Naruto-tachi leave, and considered revealing the Watch bunshin in a separate chapter but in the end, couldn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t have been just a needlessly short chapter.

Furthermore, don’t expect Het from me. Don’t ask for it. Don’t demand it. Don’t threaten me for it. I believe that I might be genetically incapable of writing het pairings. That’s not to say that this fic won’t turn out to be Gen in the end, but if this gets any bigger, and starts to develop anything resembling a (gasp) plot with relationships don’t be surprised when I add the slash tag on the summary. I just thought I’d warn you so that those of you with sensitive stomachs can get out now while you can still consider this fic complete without going straight to hell…or into the corner to cry. I provide no tissues to the weak. For those of you who might happily celebrate this turning (and momentous) occasion, let’s break out the booze and cake. Kampai!

But not really…I hate alcohol.

And yes, I did change the summery again. Why? Because I’m learning about this fic just as you are so any new developments that make the summary sound like something it shouldn't get's corrected. At some point I figure I'll hit something that doesn't need to be changed.

Anyway, this chapter might be a little confusing; I did a lot of hedging. If you have any questions or would like something explained, feel free to PM me and I’ll PM you back a response. Yes, that means you must have a log in as I will not be filling my fic with answers to questions when the space should be used for plot. No, you don’t have to create an account just to ask me a question, an email address I can send to will work just fine. (I can track you down either way, mwahaha…sorry.)

Once again, and as always, thank you for reading.

Chapter 4 - Author's Notes

I had about seven pages of chapter four written before I scrapped it. Mostly because it started several years after Harry arrived at Konoha. When I got to writing a flashback within a flashback I knew I had to trash it and start over. The fact that I wasn’t sad to see it go said a lot to me about its quality. Hopefully the new version came out better…not that anyone other than me would know if it was better…anyway, hopefully it is/was enjoyed.

And for the subject of names…I debated a lot with myself over how to spell Same’s name. I thought that just leaving it like that would have those of you not very familiar with Japanese pronunciation (is that even the right word?), reading it like you would for the phrase, “It’s the same thing!”

I almost went with Sameh for phonetics sake but it looked to Arabic for such a Japanese name. Then I tried Samee but in the end, the way it was written in Japanese was in the katakana for “sa” then “me” so there was really no alternative that could still be correct. (To my knowledge.) Especially when taking into consideration that in Japanese every letter has an effect on the word, even adding an extra “e” could have changed the name into something completely different from the intended word. So for those of you who don’t know, the name is pronounced “sah.meh.”

The name’s meaning is unsurprisingly “Shark” for those of you who know what his son’s name means. I know, I know, how predictable is that, but I’ll have you know I almost went with “Kujira” for whale but in the end it made me think, “large and slow.” (Sorry to all the whales out there.)

As for the sporadic use of Japanese in this chapter… deal with it? Fact is, some things and some words just don’t feel right in English and writing out words like “Lord Uchiha” just doesn’t give the same connotation as Uchiha-sama does. And mostly, the use of Japanese is sparse and most of them obvious. I find it hard to believe that anyone familiar with fanfiction wouldn’t know most, if not all, of the words I used, if that’s not enough use context clues (just like your second grade teacher taught you.) And if that’s not enough…look it up, consider it my effort to education you.

This chapter resulted in four pages of notes that have nothing to do with this chapter. I look forward to utilizing them soon.

Harry’s use of the word “connect” is partially ritual, and partially necessary. In the same way that Naruto uses the phrase “kage bunshin no justu”. I don’t recall, but I’m pretty sure Naruto doesn’t say it every time he calls up a bunshin. For a moment I thought about using the Japanese word for “connect” just for a more Naruto-locale feel, but in the end, well, Harry’s British, and I thought I stretched it pretty far with just the mahou bunshin.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. -bows low-

Ah...I forgot earlier, but for those of you who would like to get a vague impression of what Harry's sharingan eyes look like, I etched out a sketch and you can see it by going to my homepage. You get the best image if you keep clicking on the picture till you can't click no more.